| Friday, May 26, 2006 |
| historical moments |
Ok, class was very interesting today...unexpectedly fun and funny. It was supposed to be boring because we were going through past year papers.
The first thing was that I was looking at the first MCQ question thinking, "Hmm I think the answer is A..."
Without realising that there was some sort of typo in the questions and all 4 options they gave us were A.
Lol. So we started crapping about how any answer we gave would be correct because all the options are A anyway.
Later we had to do group work and presentation for 1 of the 4 questions in Part 2, the long answer questions. My group did splendidly, eh. We got all the points really. :D
Then there was the last group...Brandon's group, in which he was the only guy. Some of the other guys the started saying things like, "Come one! You're the only guy!" and "Be a male!" and then,
"You're the one with the stick!"
Ok, at first that was funny...but then someone went on to talk about using the stick to er, bang. Actually, I was mildly shocked at the crudeness of that. Kind of inappropriate I thought...but well. The poor fella looked quite embarrassed. Then during his presentation, he kept saying "yeah". I didn't really notice until I realised that Razi kept giggling to himself, and soon it became obvious why. Of course everyone soon realised Razi was behaving strangely and started to notice the 'yeah's and getting giggly too.
After the presentation Darren (the teacher) said something about it being quite a good presentation.
Razi: Yeah.
And everyone erupted in laughter.
So then it was the end of class and Halima pointed out to me that it was past 4:30 PM. "First time in history," I said. Haha yes first time that we've ever ended later than 4:30, in fact we usually end around 4 PM. And the thing is I think we mostly didn't notice the time because we were quite enjoying ourselves.
And then later on the train we saw a condom ad...from some Japanese company. Now that's another first.
(Ok I know the title is very exaggerated...haha!) |
posted by esther @ 11:56 PM  |
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| Wednesday, May 24, 2006 |
| At Last |
by Etta James
[LISTEN]
At last...
My love has come along
My lonely days are over
And life is like a song
Oh yeah yeah
At last...
The skies above are blue
My heart was wrapped up in clover
The night I looked at you
I found a dream
that I could speak to
A dream that I can call my own
I found a thrill to press my cheek to
A thrill that I have never known
Oh yeah yeah
You smiled, you smiled
Oh and then the spell was cast
And here we are in heaven
for you are mine....
At last
Nonono, it's not what you're thinking....
It's just that....
At last....
I'm done with the Bio lab report!!!
:DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
(love love love the song-!) |
| posted by esther @ 4:17 PM |
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| Monday, May 22, 2006 |
| Survivor Voyeurism |
Voyeurism.
That's why we watch reality TV, don't we? We're all voyeurs at heart. What happens when you put X number of people together on an island/in the same house/in a competition/chained together/on a stage?? Some say it's scripted. It may very well be, I think.
I'd say Survivor has to be my favourite of it all...Yes, I'm quite the reality TV junkie. Through the years there have been a profusion of them, but I've really stopped watching most except Survivor, America's Next Top Model and Project Runway (woo pretty things galore!!), and the occasional singing/dancing competition. Although even in the early years I wouldn't have gone near Are You Hot? with a ten-foot pole!
I stopped watching Survivor for a few seasons when it got boring, but since then they've made the game more dynamic and unpredictable. And it is the original reality TV show after all! Still, I missed most of the last season (I actually forget to watch TV nowdays), only catching the finale. So I was searching online for Survivor stuff the next day and look what I found...
MySpace profiles of Aras and Shane. Et voila!
Yes, I did sign on to view the pictures. *looks sheepish* Voyeurs at heart, aren't we all. Tsk tsk.
It's funny though, how people who leave comments on their profiles actually seem to talk to them as if they know them personally. Did they really think their "oh aras you are soooo hott" comment would elicit a "thank you, you too" from him? Or that "shane did you start smoking again" would inspire an actual reply? And it's funny when they say things like "ttyl" and "pls comment back".
I've read about this phenomenon before in my last Communications unit. Like how you see someone in the media so much that you somehow think that you know this person. It's called para-social interaction. "The para-social performer is able to establish 'intimacy with millions'". The Survivor format would certainly facilitate this, not just in the way they get individual players to talk to the camera and divulge secrets, but probably also in the way people are made to empathise with them as we watch them struggle and fight to win. People cheer for them, root for them, and make them heroes. It's easy to forget that the person we see on TV may not be real - a result of casting, scripting, editing, or circumstances. Put me on an island to win a million dollars and I'd probably not be the person you know.
And it's funny, too, this instant celebrity thing. The Everyman's X minutes of fame. Like Mr Nong Nong Ago from the Singapore Idol auditions (you'll know who if you watched it last night!), whom you'd probably not even notice before he went on TV. (I predict that Mr Nong Nong Ago will be the next Mr Careless Whisper - his rendition of "Long Long Ago" was really hilarious!) Unfortunately such fame leaves little legacy. Mr Careless Whisper's attempts at a second stab of fame last night were very promptly dismissed, and people will probably, from now on, think that he was shameless, because the fact is - he can't sing! Even the most memorable Survivors will be forgotten a few years from broadcast.
I wonder how all this sudden attention makes them feel? How many people on their lists are real friends and family? The profiles seem legit enough. Shane's comments (they jab and rib on each other's profiles but no prizes for guessing who is funnier) and blog are really funny, and the two seem to be real friends. Look there, even I have been drawn into it.
And yep, I'm not even supposed to have time to type all this. Lol
P.S. There's a most curious character on the CBS Survivor Website called Ralph. Anybody read Lord of the Flies before? Nonono, not Lord of the RINGS by Tolkien. Lord of the Flies, by William Golding. I did it for my Lit. 'A's, it's a really brilliant book. Is the inclusion of this Ralph on the site some sort of homage for the idea of the game or an exercise in irony? Because if you know the story you'll realise the similarities with the show itself! |
| posted by esther @ 4:35 PM |
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| Sunday, May 21, 2006 |
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Ok, I've decided not to blog about what happened last week. This is to protect the name of my good friend, because apparently all whom I've told the incident to think it is, to put it politely, really very lame. And actually it's not such a big deal now that I think about it...it was quite a good practical joke while it lasted though, and I thought it was very funny...though very lame.
In the meantime, check this out. Singlish as defined by Wikipedia!
Oh, and I just checked my inbox and found an email from Jojo...that made my day! :D |
| posted by esther @ 1:04 PM |
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| Thursday, May 18, 2006 |
| reflections on the da vinci code |
Warning: Long post and possible spoilers! And a rather unnecessary movie review. xP
I watched The Da Vinci Code today with Shujuan, her friend Kay (if I didn't spell it wrongly) and Halima. I'd probably never have caught it if Shu hadn't booked tickets in advance and asked me to watch it with her. I hadn't read the book and only had a very faint inkling of what it was about - except that the author claimed that Jesus had a daughter with Mary Magdalene, which I thought was nonsense when I first heard it. Recently I'd also heard a little about the lawsuit brought against Brown for plagiarism, but that was all. (I know, I should keep up more with the news right xP) Usually I'm skeptical of things that invoke such big hoo-ha's. I just didn't get it. It was just a book, a novel, it was made up. What on earth is everyone going on about?
So I borrowed the book from Shu and after reading it, I now understand the big hoo-ha...mainly because Brown claims that "all descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate". Apparently not as many of books and documentaries out there will tell you.
Actually I find that sentence rather vague. Description is one thing, interpretation is another. Description is objective, but what I see in the book is more like interpretation through the lens of goddess symbology.
That said, I did enjoy both the book and the movie. Though in the movie they took away some parts of the book that were good, and added some which were unnecessary and slowed down the pace. If a certain local mag is to be believed, they did that to pander to the conservative Christians. Hmm. Don't think they handled that part very well, because if I were really a conservative, I wouldn't even go near it with a ten-foot pole. And if I did go to see the movie, I'd still be offended by other parts of the movie - heck the entire premise of the story would be offensive to me! The result of trying to dilute the book's claims, most notably from the viewpoint of Robert Langdon (one of the main protagonists), results in him appearing confused about his own beliefs. But then again, maybe he is. And I have to admit, it makes him a bit more sympathetic and likeable, the way he tries to argue for the other side.
They also down-played the romantic tension between Robert and Sophie. Well, maybe it's because it seems all too weird for Tom Hanks and Audrey Tatou to be romantically involved. The strange thing is they made Sophie give Robert a little head massage in the middle (which was weeeird and not in the book), but at the end they seemed more like father and daughter than anything else! The other thing is that they took away one of the cryptex (what is plural for cryptex? cryptix? crypti? cryptexes??), which was such a pity because I thought the password for the first one was so sweet, and the way it was solved so smart.
Anyway, I've been thinking. I wouldn't really mind so much if it was true that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and they had children. Jesus was human, after all. Was it so out of the ordinary for Him to have been married and to have had children? Of course, this would mean He had sex, doesn't it? And what is so unholy about that? Sex is a gift from God in marriage. Yes, it says nowhere in the Bible that Jesus was married. But I don't believe that all that God was, is, will be, and all that He did can be contained in the Bible. There's still so much we don't know - can never know. God is supreme and sovereign; He chooses to reveal what He chooses to reveal. Who are we to question Him in this?
Both the book and movie talked about how the early church 'demonised' Mary Magdalene by rewriting her as a prostitute. I have a problem with this little bit because what I know about God tells me that He loves everyone the same way, regardless of the quantity and quality of their sins. He forgives all; murderers, prostitutes, liars, small-time crooks. There is no discrimination in His sight. Once forgiven, all slates are wiped clean. To say that painting Mary as a prostitute was a 'smear campaign' is to show lack of understanding of the extent of God's love and forgiveness! Surely Jesus never looked at Mary and thought any lesser of her because she used to be a prostitute (or whatever she used to be).
Oh, and in the movie Sophie said to Silas the monk, "Your God does not forgive murderers." If anything is blasphemy, this line is! It wasn't even in the book, actually.
Then there's also that bit about how the gospels that focused on Jesus' humanity instead of His divinity were burnt and excluded from the canon. I have a problem with that too, because - doesn't it say clearly in the Bible itself that Jesus was the Son of God as well as the Son of man? He was divine, but He was also human - He had to eat, sleep, drink, move His bowels, He was tempted. He was all man, but also all God. To deprive Him of either His humanity or His divinity is to miss the whole point altogether - God came down to earth as a man, lived among us as a man, so that He could die for our sins in the end.
Come to think about it, this Jesus that people talk about all the time - in the news, in novels, in movies, in documentaries - it's really strange. Because when they talk about Him it's as if He's this distant, long-dead person. But He also happens to be the One person in this world who knows me best, who knows every single detail about me and holds it precious. Who is right beside me now. He who tells me that I am the apple of His eye, who knows every thought in my head. He's so close. And it's strange, almost surreal, when they talk about Him like that.
Like Brown says himself in his novel (which at some points seems more like a personal commentary), most educated Christians know the bloody history of their church. Even today, power and politcs abound in the body of Christ. It shouldn't be, and it's very sad that Christians today are so divided. That so many of us, myself included, are so inadequate reflections of His glory. But God chooses who He will to do impossible things. Not by merit of anything but His grace. Some of the things Christians have done, in His name or otherwise, are absolutely shameful. Sometimes I'm disturbed by these things and by our history, Protestant or otherwise. It's so hard to know what and who is right or wrong.
Only one thing I know - I have experienced God, and there's no turning back. Sometimes I think I would have an easier time if I wasn't a Christian. But that's the flesh speaking. My spirit has tasted of the Lord and I know that He is good, true, and right. So He's going to be the standard against which I measure all things.
P.S. On the actors - it was a very good cast! Obviously nobody doubts Tom Hanks' acting, and I've always admired Sir Ian McKellen's acting (a knight to play a knight!). And Paul Bettany as Silas is intense (and handsome =P). He doesn't have many lines, but lines seem unnecessary for such a character - he is a ghost. He is, in a sense, the purest of all the characters, because he really believes, all the time, that he's doing the work of God. Poor, tortured, blind Silas. Sometimes his eyes are really freaky - the glazed look of the possessed. And then sometimes the person inside breaks through and he's so vulnerable. Somehow though, I still felt that could be more to such a character that didn't show... |
| posted by esther @ 8:43 PM |
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| Thursday, May 11, 2006 |
| Grrrrr |
My printer is a roaring ink-guzzling machine!!!!
Well, maybe I really am printing too many things. :S At least it scans, copies and prints double-sided too. The last function, especially, is a great help - saving roughly half the number of tress I'd have killed in my quest for good grades! And the printing is a vast improvement from my previous antique printer. Hohoho. |
| posted by esther @ 6:57 PM |
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| Because I got no time to blog lah! |
"something stupid/ridiculous/childish/out-of-the-world happened to Sheepie
today. i'm sooooo honored to b part of the stupid thing. *yeah right...* *roll
my eyes all over* its so dumb that its so funny. Geez Sheep...for a while i
thought u got urself a secret Sheep hater. PHEW!!! tell raji and jong about it
they'll die laughing. ask him to stop harassing my poor little brother." - bizhu aka adrielle
Ok, "today" was actually 2 days ago...I'll blog about it next week. Hopefully my recap does the funny-ness and incredulity of the incident justice! Stay tuned.
Just watched Renovate My Family on TV, also what I'll call the Oh-My-God Show, because you hear that about 100 times in each episode. Lol. It beats every other makeover show in the world - they literally transform an entire family. Whoever came up with this brilliant, awesome concept? (And the funding!!) The recaps on the site don't do it justice. Ok. Back to work. =P |
| posted by esther @ 4:01 PM |
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| Tuesday, May 09, 2006 |
| Evidence that academics are not without a sense of humour |
An actual article found during my lit search for the upcoming lab report...
Thank you Ms Levine and Mr Pizarro for making me smile in such a time as this.
Hohoho :D |
| posted by esther @ 3:36 PM |
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| Friday, May 05, 2006 |
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| I have to make something clear, though; although my parents tend to be emotional with regards to the PAP, they're also intelligent people who realise that just because Opposition is Opposition doesn't mean they're good. I think I asked my mom about this once when I was really tired of the complaining. =X |
| posted by esther @ 6:48 PM |
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| Politics??? |
I went to buy dinner at White Sands today, and on my way out was surprised to see the PAP members of the Pasir Ris-Ponggol GRC camping out on high stools outside Iora. Like some benign white-shirted mafia. Having an illegal gathering. Lol. Teo Chee Hean saw me (perhaps I looked surprised) and brought up one hand slowly in a wave. I smiled at him. I wonder if politicians ever stand in front of their mirrors and practice things like hand-waving?
Ok, I'm not going to get all political here because 1) I admit I don't know enough about the various parties and 2) I've got an essay to write! But, growing up with my parents, both of whom are self-employed (ie. bosses of their own company), and whom are solid PAP-haters, I can't help but be influenced. I've seen how hard they've had to work all these years (don't come and tell me it's easy being your own boss). And although I don't think it's good to be so subjective about things and although I can't substantiate their claims that all the PAP ever makes them do is Pay And Pay, I'm definitely skeptical about what they claim to offer.
But I've read Animal Farm (by George Orwell) before, in which the animals conquered the dominating, authoritarian humans and let their own (the pigs) rule, only to find themselves under the same slavery as before. So I am, at the present moment, skeptical too (if less so) about the Opposition. I haven't been chasing the news, but the other day I saw this clip where a certain PAP member (forgot his name liao) was talking about how all the Workers' Party ever did was criticise PAP, they are more like Wayang Party. I thought, Dude, I'm with you in this, but aren't you stooping to the same level as them by making fun of them like that?
And as for the Party Political Broadcasts....we need to work on having some facial expressions I guess (with the exception of the PAP guy, who looked like a benign white-shirted grandfather) . Haha. Ok maybe this is nitpicking, they've not had ample 'practice' yet. But why do all of them have glazed eyes and talk as if they're reading off a teleprompter?
Actually, I've always loathed politics. I don't believe there is such a thing as a perfect, 100% right way of government. Because people are only human, and where humans are things like pride and greed are present. Meritocracy? Democracy? Blah blah blah. In theory they work fine. Just not in practice.
We watched the movie Closer in Comms class today. I thought it tried just a tad too hard, but it makes you think. Witty, ironic and funny in some parts. The cinematography and narration was good. The casting of all four main characters are brilliant - for eg., Jude Law the real life unfaithful husband is Dan the unfaithful husband who seems only to love himself, and Natalie Portman, with her air of wearied innocence, is the naive stripper. The acting's good too.
Ok, I'm starting to sound all hoity-toity and know-it-all!!
When I really know nothing. |
| posted by esther @ 5:58 PM |
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| Wednesday, May 03, 2006 |
| soul food |
When I'm feeling all nauseous and headachy and sick...
There's nothing like hot carrot and cabbage soup noodles/porridge. Of course there're other ingredients like luncheon meat or chicken or peanuts involved, but the base is carrot and cabbage.
Yummy!!! Nothing like good ol' veggies. I love me veggies. :D |
| posted by esther @ 8:51 PM |
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